Don’t Cry for Ricky Martin as ‘Evita’ Closes at a Loss

Undone by high weekly running costs, Broadway’s top-selling
show to open in 2012 closed Saturday night without earning back
the $11 million raised from investors.

The failure of “Evita” illustrates the risks of producing
large, star-driven musical revivals, which generally have a
shorter life than a popular all-new show.

The 1979 original, with Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin,
ran nearly four years; the revival just 46 weeks. Given its
sales, it would have taken at least 63 weeks for the production
to break even. (The production cost $9.6 million.)

A budget and early results were obtained from the office of
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman through a Freedom of
Information Law request and from a Broadway investor.

The show was capitalized at $11 million, including $1
million held in reserve. Ticket sales averaged about $1.03
million per week after deducting credit card commissions and
other fees that producers don’t keep. Weekly expenses were about
$880,000 including royalties paid to the director, composer and
others.

Narrow Margins

“You’re playing to a very narrow profit margin,” said
Jack Viertel, artistic director of the Encores! concert series,
referring to large revivals generally. “Stars in revivals make
sense if you believe you have a business model that can make
back its money in a reasonable amount of time.”

New York critics were underwhelmed by Argentinian star
Elena Roger in the title role. But Martin proved a huge draw, as
evidenced by the dips when he missed performances. When he
didn’t renew his one-year contract, the lead producers, Hal
Luftig and Scott Sanders, searched for replacements to extend
the run, without success.

Luftig and Sanders declined to comment for this story, said
Leslie Papa, a production spokesman.

With a cast of three dozen, “Evita” was a large-scale
undertaking. While Martin’s pay as Marxist revolutionary Che
Guevara wasn’t fully detailed, the budget lists a “star
percentage” bonus of 10 percent of weekly box office above
$700,000 and “star perqs” (perquisites) of $18,500 a week. The
five principals shared about $170,000 a week in pay and
perquisites at the outset of the run.

High Payroll

That’s nearly three times the initial weekly pay of the
entire 27-actor company of 2011’s monster hit “The Book of
Mormon.”

Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful Group, which
owns the rights to the show, was paid a onetime fee of $100,000.
In addition, Lord Lloyd Webber and Really Useful earned fees and
royalties totaling about $70,000 a week. From that, lyricist Tim
Rice received an undisclosed portion of the authors’ $6,300
weekly license fee.

Really Useful’s compensation includes these weekly
whoppers: More than $5,000 for “management advice and services
remotely from the United Kingdom” and $3,500 for “costumes,
sets and props in the Broadway production.”

Never mind that the revival, which originated in London,
had its own Tony Award-winning designer, Christopher Oram.
(Really Useful also received 15 percent of sales of Broadway
merchandise.)

Expenses associated with the Marquis Theatre added up:
During the first month, when the company was rehearsing, rent,
musicians, stagehands, box office and other staff cost
approximately $250,000 a week.

Overall, the show needed to gross an additional 13 percent
each week, or a total of about $1.18 million after deducting for
credit card commissions, just to repay investors within a year.

The bottom line: Celebrities are no guarantee of an
audience large enough to earn back investors’ money.